STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A 45-year-old man is dead following preliminary reports of an early-morning fight in a Mariners Harbor community residence today.

Police
responded to a 911 call just after 8 a.m. to 339 Harbor Rd., that a man
living there was knocked down by another male resident, according to a
police source. He hit his head on a table and was knocked unconscious,
the caller said, and his lips turned blue.

When police arrived at the scene, they found John Parisi unresponsive and took him to Richmond
University Medical Center, West Brighton, where he was pronounced dead,
an NYPD spokeswoman said.

The city medical examiner's office is slated to conduct an autopsy tomorrow, a spokeswoman for the agency said.

If his death is ruled a homicide, it would mark the second slaying on Staten Island since the start of the year.

The
address houses several clients of social services provider Volunteers
of America -- a spokeswoman for the agency confirmed today that the
victim is one of its clients.

"All I can say is we're working
closely with law enforcement to see what happened," said Volunteers of
America spokeswoman Rachel Weinstein. "We are as saddened and devastated
as the family."

Parisi's neighbors recalled him as a friendly man.

"He was a sweatheart," said Luisa Ortiz, who lives on Harbor Road, but is not a client of Volunteers of America. "He knew everybody in the complex. He called my husband his cousin."